WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of Defense on Sept. 2 announced that it would deputize U.S. military officers and certain civilian attorneys to the Department of Justice to work, temporarily, as immigration judges.
The military attorneys will be granted authority to preside over Immigration Court hearings, which are held when the government wants to remove a foreign national—whether an illegal immigrant or lawfully admitted—from the United States. The Department of Defense (DOD) said that the attorneys had been requested by the Department of Justice, and will help reduce Immigration Courts’ arrears, which currently number 3.4 million cases.
